GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 771009
Consider what to do with XKB options
Last modified: 2018-03-30 11:25:29 UTC
They didn't make the cut for GNOME 3.22 (see bug 770955), but we need to figure out whether we want them back in the main UI, and how.
Created attachment 334999 [details] [review] keyboard: Simplify keyboard option object creation
Created attachment 335000 [details] [review] keyboard: Add "value-description" property to CcKeyboardOption
Created attachment 335001 [details] [review] keyboard: Load CcKeyboardOptions And emit the "option-added" signal when we do.
Created attachment 335002 [details] [review] keyboard: Show CcKeyboardOptions in the list
Comment on attachment 335001 [details] [review] keyboard: Load CcKeyboardOptions This doesn't load the default values (through setup_keyboard_options())
Comment on attachment 335002 [details] [review] keyboard: Show CcKeyboardOptions in the list This doesn't load the values, or allow to change them.
I attached my WIP patches to re-add the settings to the shortcuts list, as they were in 3.20 and earlier, but we'll probably want to go with another long-term solution.
My suggestion for a long-term solution is to expose the alternate characters key in the keyboard panel and move compose key and the secondary switch layouts option to tweak tool: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gnome-design-team/gnome-mockups/master/system-settings/keyboard/keyboard-wires.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gnome-design-team/gnome-mockups/master/tweak-tool/tweak-tool-wires.png Reasons for this: The alternate characters key and compose key both do the same thing, so it seems like we should choose which one to promote. While the compose key is cool, it is a bit non-standard and takes some fluency to use. Also, some keyboards have the third level keys (which are accessed with the alternate characters key) printed on them, making this function more discoverable and more in the category of "make my hardware work". As for the secondary switch layout option, we already have the super+space combo for this, which is advertised in the region and language panel. Ideally we wouldn't have two separate shortcuts for this action and it's a bit of a confusing situation for users, so better not to make the secondary one so prominent.
*** Bug 773071 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 779314 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
As someone who got hit by the loss of the option to configure compose in control-panel 3.22 (I found it in the tweak tool I never use), I will explain my use case: *I* exclusively use US layout keyboard, but then I casually type French with it, which means accents. So far I have configured right-Alt to be compose and use that. The alternate characters would work for me. When I'm on macOS I use option to type the accents, and you can get them a "dead keys" that way. This is to me the "standard". Of course mapping to what is on the physical keyboard for 3rd level is best, in the case of US Layout there is nothing. One neat trick that macOS has for more than 30 years is that the keyboard layout display (started as the Keyboard Desktop accessory in 1984) show the actual symbol displayed whenever a modifier key is displayed. So in the current (3.22) Keyboard Layout, it should do that instead of showing many level (lower case and uppercase for example), including with the alternate characters.
*** Bug 781478 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to Hubert Figuiere (:hub) from comment #11) > *I* exclusively use US layout keyboard, but then I casually type French with > it, which means accents. So far I have configured right-Alt to be compose > and use that. > > The alternate characters would work for me. When I'm on macOS I use option > to type the accents, and you can get them a "dead keys" that way. This is to > me the "standard". Of course mapping to what is on the physical keyboard for > 3rd level is best, in the case of US Layout there is nothing. > > One neat trick that macOS has for more than 30 years is that the keyboard > layout display (started as the Keyboard Desktop accessory in 1984) show the > actual symbol displayed whenever a modifier key is displayed. So in the > current (3.22) Keyboard Layout, it should do that instead of showing many > level (lower case and uppercase for example), including with the alternate > characters. Thanks for sharing your use case, Hubert. I didn't meant to reduce functionality with the introduction of the redesigned panel, and we'll figure out a way to bring that back, nice and beautifully.
Comment on attachment 334999 [details] [review] keyboard: Simplify keyboard option object creation Still need to decide what to do with the other patches. But this one can be pushed safely: Attachment 334999 [details] pushed as 3dafd78 - keyboard: Simplify keyboard option object creation
(In reply to Georges Basile Stavracas Neto from comment #14) > Still need to decide what to do with the other patches. I think this work needs to be redone, as we're not going to be adding items directly inside the shortcuts list, but above it.
There's a patch to implement the level 3 key selection at: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/merge_requests/19